sixth, a. and n.
(sɪksθ)
Forms: α. 1 sexta (sesta, seista), 2–5 sexte (2–4 seste), 3 sæxte, 3–6 sext, 5– Sc. saxt (6 saxte). β. 1 siexta, sihsta, sixta, 2–6 sixte (2–3 siste, 4 zixte), 3–7 sixt (4 sixst); 1 syxta, 3–6 syxte, 5 zyxst, 6 syxt. γ. 6 syxthe, 7– sixth.
[OE. sexta, sixta, syxta, etc. (see six a.), = OFris. sexta (WFris. sechste, NFris. sokst), MDu. seste (Du. zesde), OS. se(h)sto (MLG. seste, soste, LG. seste, söste, soste), OHG. sehsto (MHG. sehste, G. sechste), Goth. saihsta; also OHG. sehto (MHG. sehte), ON. sétti (Icel. sjȯtti, Norw. sette, Sw. and Da. sjette).]
The ordinal numeral belonging to the cardinal six.
A. adj.
1. a. In concord with a n. expressed or implied (freq. occurring earlier in the context).
| α a 900 O.E. Martyrol. 6 Jan. 14 On þone sextan dæᵹ þæs monðes. c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Mark xv. 33 Miððy awarð tid ðio seista. c 1205 Lay. 13909 Þæ sæxte [god] hæhte Appollin. a 1225 Ancr. R. Pref. p. xxiii, The seste dale is of penitence. 13.. K. Alis. 2736 (Laud MS.), Þe sexte he slouȝ of Nauere he was. c 1320 Deb. Body & Soul in Map's Poems (Camden) 348 The seste day ayen the dom shule foure aungles stonde. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 121 After Leo Virgo the nexte Of Signes cleped is the sexte. c 1400 Destr. Troy 2047 Here begynnes the Sext Boke. 1549 Compl. Scotl. 35 Virgil..in the sext beuk of his eneados. c 1570 Satir. Poems Reform. xliv. 302 That saxt chapter of Iohne. 1609 Skene Reg. Maj. 43 The saxt day of November. |
| β c 893 K. ælfred Oros. i. vii. 38 Þæt syxte [wonder] wæs þæt eall þæt folc wæs on blædran. c 900 O.E. Chron. (Parker MS.) an. 827, Siexta [cyning] wæs Oswald se æfter him ricsode. c 1000 Sax. Leechdoms II. 298 Syxte mæᵹen is þæt drycræft þam men ne dereþ. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 43 Þe forme [wave] wes snaw,..þe siste smorðer. a 1225 Ancr. R. 14 Þe sixte dole is of penitence. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 5018 He deide after martin masse riȝt þe sixte day. 1340 Ayenb. 17 Þe uerste boȝ of prede is ontreuþe,..þe zixte, ypocrisie. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) IV. 59 Þe sixte tyme þe consuls of Rome..were sent aȝenst Hanibal. 1523 Fitzherb. Husb. §75 The syxte [property] is, to haue great nosethrylles. 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 336 The sixt Chapter declareth, that Manna was a figure. 1611 Bible Transl. Pref. ¶6 Yea, there was a fift and a sixt edition. 1667 Milton P.L. vii. 449 The Sixt [day], and of Creation last arose. |
| γ 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 14 b, Saynt Brigitte..in the syxthe boke of her reuelacyons. 1611 Bible Gen. i. 31 And the euening and the morning were the sixth day. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. ii. (1674) 92 The first [string]..is called the Treble;..the Sixth, the Bass. 1726 Swift Gulliver ii. vi, His Majesty, in a sixth audience,..proposed many doubts. a 1771 Gray Dante 74 E'er the sixth Morn Had dawn'd. 1837 P. Keith Bot. Lex. 404 Among anatomists we sometimes hear of a sixth sense. 1884 Jrnl. Education 1 Sept. 351/1 A classical Sixth Form. |
b. Following on the names of kings, popes, etc.
Very commonly, and now usually, expressed by the symbol VI,
e.g. James VI.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden VII. 151 Gregorie þe sixte,.. after Benet. 1423 in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. Var. Coll. IV. 83 The ȝere of Kyng Harry the zyxst the furste. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 2 Charles the Sext of that name. 1549 Compl. Scotl. 86 Ther eftir henry the saxt lossit his liyf. 1588 Lambarde Eirenarcha ii. iv. 160 The late K. Henry the sixt. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vind. xiv. 174 All the Bishops in King Edwards the sixt time. 1674 Brevint Saul at Endor 227 Nothing to Pope Sixtus the 4th, nor to Alexander the sixt. 1788 Gibbon Decl. & F. xlviii. V. 57 To nominate for her successor Michael the sixth. 1857 Willis's Current Notes Jan. 4/2 King James the Sixth. |
2. ellipt. With omission of
day,
house,
form,
former, etc.
| 1573 Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 14 Writtin at Paris the sext of December. 1592 tr. Junius on Rev. xi. 7 In the Sixt of the Decretals. 1631 Weever Funeral Mon. To Rdr., The sixt of May. 1647 Lilly Chr. Astrol. xliv. 258 Any malevolent in the sixt,..shews great danger. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown Pref., By getting not only the Sixth to put it down but the lower fellows to scorn it. c 1898 W. Lewis Let. (1963) 6 First a fellow got a ‘sixth licking’ (stripes from every sixth in the house). 1906 R. Brooke Let. 3 Feb. (1968) 39 [He] has been discovered..showing up proses done for him by a wee & terrified Sixth. 1914 ‘I. Hay’ Lighter Side School Life i. 5 The Head..probably takes the Sixth for an hour or two a day. 1963 Sunday Times 8 Sept. 29/3 Cool Shakespeare thrives in the sixth and phrases like ‘Pox on't’..are in present usage. 1977 R. Rendell Judgement in Stone vi. 50 You're no longer the naughtiest girl in the sixth. |
B. n. 1. A sixth part.
| 1557 Recorde Whetst. B ij b, A sixte more. 1611 Cotgr., Sixain, a sixt, a sixt part. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Measure, The Viertel, or Verge, consists of five Mingles, and one Sixth of a Mingle. 1828 Sir J. E. Smith Eng. Flora II. 345 Some flowers are deficient in a sixth of all their parts. 1842 Penny Cycl. XXIII. 418/2 One-sixth of its width. 1866 Treas. Bot. 588/2 In some Indian species the pores are one-sixth of an inch across. |
2. Mus. A tone on the sixth diatonic degree above or below another; the harmonic combination of two such tones; an interval comprising six diatonic degrees of the scale.
Different varieties are distinguished by the epithets
added,
augmented,
French,
greater,
Italian,
minor,
Neapolitan,
sharp,
small.
| 1597 T. Morley Introd. Mus. 70 A third, a Fift, a Sixt, and an eight. 1609 J. Dowland Ornith. Microl. 29 Those which sound thirds, sixts, or other imperfect Concords. 1706 A. Bedford Temple Mus. ix. 178 In this Tune they might ascend gradually unto a Sixth. 1752 tr. Rameau's Treat. Mus. i. 3 The Third becomes a Sixth,..and..the Seventh becomes a Second. 1801 Busby Dict. Mus. s.v., There are four kinds of sixths, two consonant and two dissonant. 1873 H. C. Banister Music 70 The first inversion of the Triad, consisting of a note with its 3rd and 6th, is termed the Chord of the Sixth. |
3. Fencing.
= sixte.
| 1885 E. Castle Schools & Masters of Fence Introd. 10 There can be as many guards as there are parries, although in modern days, carte, tierce, and sixth are almost exclusively used. |
4. Anat. A nerve of the sixth cranial pair.
| 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 117 Double ptosis has been frequently noted, and paralysis of both sixths sometimes. |
C. Comb. 1. With
ns., forming an attributive compound, as
sixth-floor,
sixth-form,
sixth-rate (also
absol. of a former class of warships).
| 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 232 A tub-and-cask tenant,—vulture-lodg'd—*sixth-floor man. |
| 1807 Syd. Smith P. Plymley's Lett. vi, The *sixth-form effusions of Mr. Canning. 1879 L. Stephen Hours Library III. 273 Landor is precisely a glorified..edition of the model sixth-form lad. |
| 1694 Lond. Gaz. No. 3014/4 A *Sixth Rate Frigat of 26 Guns called the Drake. 1747 Lind Lett. rel. Navy (1757) I. 22 Captains of sloops [have] the same [pay] with captains of a sixth rate. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Sixth-rate, a British vessel of war bearing a captain. |
2. sixth day, the name given to Friday by members of the Society of Friends;
sixth form: see
form n. 6 b; hence
sixth-former: see
-former;
sixth-form college, a college for pupils over the age of sixteen, chiefly providing A-level courses.
| 1655 G. Fox Jrnl. (1694) 152 On the Sixth day of that Week I had a meeting near Colchester. 1858 M. Tuckett Diary 26 Sept. in H. Fox Mariana's Diary (c 1975) 8 Sixth day morning was bright and fine. 1976 Minutes Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends 30 (heading) Sixth day afternoon session, eighth month 27th. |
| 1938 C. Morgan Flashing Stream 31 He who wrote the Sonnets, or Hamlet's bidding to Ophelia..had no moderation, no smell of the sixth form, no sense of humour. 1967 Listener 18 May 645/1 The eighteen-year-old emerging from our sixth forms has a level of knowledge as good as a second year student in a North American university. 1965 H. L. Elvin Educ. & Contemp. Soc. ii. vii. 134 There is little doubt that the sixth form college would be welcomed by most of the young people who would go to it. 1976 Times 18 Aug. 3/2 Tameside council has decided not to introduce two proposed sixth form colleges. |